Little Fish!

Ugh! I'm not sure where to begin... the last 2 1/2 weeks have been packed with fun! We spent last weekend in NC with Grandma and Papa for Eric to play with Papa in his Member/Guest tournament. Their three year run of victory ended this year, but they still had fun! Golf is definitely a humbling game:-) The kids had a blast playing in the pool and going to Music in the Streets and Riley and Lexa stayed for the rest of the week!

This was Riley's first adventure away from home (5 days!) and she had a BLAST! They played at the pool for hours each day, went on the boat daily and ate lots of icecream! They played at Deadwood (dinner/park for kids) and even dug for fossils in Aurora. Each night we spoke to our little adult on the phone and she'd happily tell us the daily adventures. It was all very surreal for Eric and Tracy... it seems like yesterday that she was just learning to talk! And according to Ri, "Grandma and Papa even let me (her) have soda... twice!" It was a VERY exciting week!

During this time, E & T relaxed with only one child back home... however, as always, Kyle came down with croup! He is better now, just fighting a secondary cold from the croup:-(

During all this time, both kids have become water bugs!! They have spent countless hours at the pool and are both swimming! Riley really has it down and Kyle, just keeps on trying - which impresses us to no end considering he just turned 2 and has had not lessons.

We have also had a couple of great dinners with great friends, visited Bebe (our fabulous patient!), gone to Kings Dominion several times, and had playgroup several times!
The kids LOVE school and are enjoying all the summer fun, including splash day. Kyle's teaches continue to crack us up... they claim that they want an entire class room of "Kyles"! They say his vocab is fabulous and that he is adorable and funny... we want to know which child they are sending home with us then - since once home he is a tiny terror! Just kidding, he is a sweetheart (with a little devil in him) and we are so happy his teachers love him as much as we do! OK, enough kid love... on to the pix!

Lexa and Ri waiting for adult swim to end... look at those little bottoms!

Cerys, Riley, and Kyle enjoying Diamond Castle (for the hundredth time)
Kings Dominion!

Kyle at the golf Tournament (in grandmas glasses)

Ri & Lexa in matching suits from Bebe

swim bugs

Ri feeding the turtles during her NC adventure

Chillin with lunch during the NC adventure

On the ferry with Papa ("even CARS go on this boat", per Riley)

Digging with Grandma - Ri found a little sharks tooth in her shoe!

Riley and her favorite past-time

Lexa, Ri, and Papa at Deadwood

Eric and Tracy at the Member/Guest dinner

Grandma and Papa's view

Grandma & Kyle sharing icecream that ended in LOTs of giggles!

Crazy Kid!

The trio!

Riley has learned to swim!!!

Kyle and Papa playing during their last visit to Richmond

Kyle swimming:

Pool time!!

We have had a busy and fun couple weeks – a great kick off to the summer! Riley and Kyle have gotten reacquainted with the pool and are enjoying being outside and barefoot as much as possible. They are also no longer fearful of thunder storms (we thank DelFest for that) and we have had a couple doozies lately producing hail and flooding!
We spent a fun day at Kings Dominion with the Lamberts last week. It was perfect weather and not crowded at all - we rode nearly every ride in the kids section and still had time for the water park. The lazy river was a huge hit and we are looking forward to going back soon. We also spent a day at CMoR with the Lamberts and got to visit briefly with the Grinnells from Atlanta! It is so much fun seeing Drew and Kyle together since they are nearly the same age and we wish they lived closer!
We have also gone down to see Bebe twice in the last couple weeks. Bebe’s arm is getting better and better every day and she is an excellent patient, doing everythink asked of her by her PT! For some strange reason, I think she actually misses diaper duty;-) We also attended the Strawberry Festival AND the Greek Festival in the past couple weeks. And had a great dinner with the O’Sullivans this past weekend! Riley and Kyle had tons of fun playing with Cerys and taking over her house!!
The kids began a new school last week as well. Since Bebe is out of commission, they are going to school three days a week for awhile. They both appear to really love their new classes and Riley has found two new best buddies right away. Riley has officially finished soccer and is ready for gymnastics again. Although she definitely has the skill for soccer, she doesn’t have the competitiveness just yet, so we are going to take a soccer break. Riley is entering a new stage where she has lots of opinions and they are normally opposite of what Tracy & Eric want! Although she is still a very sweet, compassionate, and smart little girl, she enjoying telling us “no” way too much… we are working on that however it has given us a glimpse into our teen age years with Riley:-)
Kyle was given a clean bill of health this past week – his ears look great! They are no longer “puking goo” anymore, as Riley would put it. He is a crazy boy as always and has begun eating us out of house and home! Dinner earlier this week consisted of THREE entire tacos! He may have eaten more than Tracy or Eric. He seems to love his new school and reportedly sang in his sleep so clearly the first day that the little girl next to him, who was not sleeping, joined in!
On to the pix!

Riley snacking at the pool

Kyle (aka White Boy!) at the pool

Lexa lounging at the pool
The trio!

Last soccer practice! Goals are being scored and participation is occuring!

Riley, Ivy, and Drew at CMoR

Kyle, Ivy, & Riley at CMoR

Kyle, Riley, and Aiden on the dino at CMoR

Riley and Kyle destroying Cerys' toys!

(yes, Kyle has on a princess dress! He didn't want Cerys to be the only one dressing up!)

Del YEAH, Hail NO!

By far the best way to tell the tale of DelFest is though pictures... so let the tales begin!
This past Memorial Day weekend we drove up to Cumberland, MD so we could enjoy our first festival as a family! The kids had never been camping and we had not been to a festival since they were born. DelFest is extremely family friendly, with projects, events, and crafts for the kids all day long and great music for everyone! Our friends, Robin, Mark, and Cerys O'Sullivan joined us and we met up with Jack, Howard, Penny, Liz, and Carter when we got there. We were ready for good time!

Our Caravan arrived before noon on Saturday eager to set up camp! Our camp was perfect - two huge tents, 2 canopy's, plenty of extra chairs and tables, and more food and drinks than we could consume! Our neighbors were super sweet and Jack and his crew were right across the way.

Riley, Cerys, & Kyle settling in....

We walked over to the "late night venue" because it had A/C, listened to some tunes and headed back to camp for the kido's to nap.

Kyle napping - so sweet!

After naps, the kids had a bite to eat and a bit of rain started to come down. No prob - rain would cool the place off. Notice below, the rain behind Kyle... it started to come down harder, and harder....

Luckily, Robin was super smart and laid her water proof blanket over all our dry goods (eventually, the green canopy in the pix below collapsed on top of the black blanket below, keeping all the food dry. We were obviously no under the canopy any more).

Robin, Riley and Eric looking at the rain coming even harder...

Eventually we all headed to our respective tents to wait out the rain (see video below)... the rain kept coming, the winds whipped harder (I'm still waiting hear just how hard), and soon the 1st round of golf ball hail began... We have a nice size tent, so luckily, I was able to push a lot of stuff to the center to keep it and us some what dry. I held on to the kids and one wall of the tent, while Eric stood in the middle and held on to our ceiling - for nearly an HOUR and 2 rounds of fierce hail. If I had known any better, I would have thought it was a tornado - luckily it was not, but the environment was pretty darn close!

Riley had a rough time through the storm - crying "this rain is trying to ruin all the fun" and Kyle held on tight with a very serious, stone face on. I kept saying to Eric, "5 more minutes, right?" We've been though some camping storms, but nothing like this and NOT with our babies!

When the storm somewhat broke, we threw the kids in the van and began salvaging everything we could...

Both of our canopies were 6 plus camps away and our tents were full of wet nastiness. The kids were holding up well, but ultimately, we decided to try for a hotel for the night, dry out, and survey in the morning. And the morning looked great! While we were gone, the storm fairies (Liz and Penny!) came and layed out all our blankets, sleeping bags etc, to dry and when we got back, we sham-wowed our puddles away and set out for a great day of music!

Day 2 - back at camp - the kids playing. The green tent pictured here was deserted right after the eye of the Storm and filled with a foot of water.

Riley loved every minute of the hippy life - here she is washing her feel in storm water.Kyle in our tent. Our tent held up REALLY well though the storm... especially since we ended up buying it right before we left and never water proofed it! thank goodness we were not in our old tent during this storm -we wouldn't have been back to rally the next day!
My hippy girl and daddy! Peace, love and cheese!
Eric cooking for camp - yummmm burgers!

Kyle and his girl Cerys eating blackberries. Kyle loved Cerys but Cerys preferred to play with Riley most the time! totally understandable - girls need to stick together!
After the blackberries (it looks like he ate a live animal!)
heading down to the meadow for some music! The music meadow is at the base of a huge cliff (see behind pix) That evening, we could see mountain goats at the very edge of the cliff - super cool!
The mountain that probably caused all the crazy weather! We talked to one guy at the festival who had lived in cumberland for 30 years. He said that he had NEVER seen such weather.

The canopy/tent aftermath - sooo many tents and vendors were destroyed. No one was seriously hurt (possibly 4 lightening hits but no serious injuries)

Vendor alley - this pix was not taken by me b/c I was hiding in my tent.

Also, pix not taken by me! This was the beginning of the storm.

With exclusion of the storm, we had a great time and the kids loved camping! We hope in future years, we get less rain, more music, and no antibiotics (I've avoided mentioning Kyles diapers though this entire weekend, due to the repulsiveness of antibiotics not mixing well with this tummy!) We are so thankful that our families stayed safe, that no one was hurt at the festival and for all the wonderful people we met. Although the storm was horrible, the community that grows out of this type of destruction is beautiful! We are so happy the O'Sullivans joined us and hope we can convince them and other to join us next year, because we WILL be back!!

In the tent, before things turned super ugly - can you hear how hard the rain is coming down?

Day 2 - another threat of serious rain - we hid out inside and listened to music. We never had another serious storm, thank God!

Ponies, Priests, & Pipers

With as few pix that were taken, you'd never believe what a busy week we had! To start, Bev's surgery went very well and she is doing GREAT! She now has a new ball in her elbow and will have a few more weeks of recovery but she is rebounding like a champ!

The weather has been beautiful and the kids have spent several afternoons at the new park across the street and on the back deck with Lexa's water table! Grandma and Papa came for a quick visit and Grandma got to witness both girls score at least 5 goals each at soccer!! Look out the window now... pigs may be flying!

On Sunday, the kids and Eric went to see our favorite patient, Bebe, while Tracy walked a half marathon with Julie and Becky. The kids had a hard time staying off Bebe's bad arm and Tracy and the girls walked 12 min 41 sec miles!

Kyle officially came though his bought with croup like a champ as well, however on Monday his ear drum ruptured! The poor kid never really complained and can't seem to catch a break! While driving to his doctors appointment after a few sleepless nights, Riley whispered to Tracy, "Mommy, why does Kyle have goo in his ear?" Ugh!! He was feeling much better by Wednesday and joined Tracy and Riley for her last field trip at her current school. We spent the day at the zoo and had a great time! And to top out the week before our fun camping trip, we spent the evening at the childrens museum and got soaked in the water features outside!

Grandma and her kids!

Kyle getting ready for the camp out - the kids are obsessed with their new sleeping bags. Riley has slept every night and nap in hers since we purchased it!
First glimpse at giraffes

at the zoo

Giraffe - up close and personal!

Julie, Becky, and Tracy - After 13.1 miles!

Fire, Fire!

Wow, what a week!! On Thursday, we spent a fun evening at the childrens museum for a members only night. Riley and Kyle had the run of the place and had a blast! Friday morning was Kyle's 2 year appointment. Riley spent the morning with her buddies, John and Ruthie while Kyle tried to wait patiently to see the doc! He was healthy as a horse and unlike Riley at that age, he is still on the smaller side (34 1/2 inches and 28 pounds). The doctor said he was right where he should be in all areas of learning and looked great! After the doc we spent the rest of the morning at the park with our playgroup friends. That evening all four of us met some friends down at Friday Cheers to hear the Jerry Garcia Band. It was a beautiful evening, the kids ran free, and had a blast (which is a really good sign considering we are doing the same thing in a couple weeks for 3 straight days!)

Saturday started off with Soccer - Riley even kicked the ball a couple times in game! Progress!! That afternoon we went to Caleb and Josh's 3rd birthday. The kids got to climb all over a fire truck and even sprayed the hose. Riley now knows the importance of 911 and when it should and shouldn't be used. I have a feeling we'll be back to the fire house for one of Kyle's birthdays in the future. That evening, Darcy and Lexa came over for a sleep over and Tracy and Eric went to Kings Dominion with the Bests. KD w/o kids is an entirely different park! The rain sailed right over us without even a drop and we rode 5 coasters in about 2 hours!

Of course the next day was Mothers Day! Happy MOMs day to all the moms out there! The weather was perfect!! We played out side and had a nice dinner out. Unfortunately, Kyle started to run a high temp that afternoon and the seal bark began... It was a rough night and there was no doubt in Tracy's mind that we were dealing with a bad case of croup. We even had to spend some time in the steamy shower to get Kyle breathing again... needless to say, the doc saw him again and started him on a steroid right there in the office. He is doing MUCH better now and will be returning to school tomorrow.

Speaking of, the kids will be moving schools soon - we are so sad to leave our current school, but proximity is key and it is time to move. In addition, the kids will start going to school for 3 days instead of 2 for the next month or so. While Bebe was visiting family in Atlanta, she fell and broke her elbow:-( Between Uncle Bill, Aunt Karen, and Eric, we got her safely home, but surgery is scheduled for tomorrow and there will be no diaper changing in her near future (lucky lady!) As much as she loves her day with the kids, her recovery is the most important thing and we'll make sure she still gets her fill of Riley and Kyle!
well, the camera didn't come out nearly as often as it should have this week - enjoy!

Soccer practice

Riley driving the fire truck

The birthday crew

on the back of the truck

Riley with the fire hose

Kyle with the fire hose

Out like a Rock

Rain, Rain, go away! We are ready for the sunshine to come back!
The kids had a fun week again! On Friday, we hosted playgroup and had cupcakes in celebration of Kyle's 2nd birthday! Our baby boy is officially 2!! Later that afternoon we met up with Aunt Darcy and Lexa for some fun at the Childrens Museum and then off to dinner!

Saturday started with soccer. Riley was very proud of herself for not fussing during practice - she did a great job with everything the coaches asked her to do, but still no interest in playing in the actual games! After soccer, Lexa came home with us to play and we had a great time playing all afternoon - especially when we went over to the new playground across the street!

We also visited the new school that the kids are going to be moving to shortly. Both kids seems to really like it, so we are off to the right start!

2 for Kyle has come like a storm! He has taken on a new attitude which is testing Tracy & Eric to no end! Tracy even had to walk out of a store on Monday with Kyle kicking and screaming under her arm!! In 4 1/2 years of parenting, Tracy has NEVER dealt with that situation! He is still a huge sweetheart, however he is just a devil!! Wish us luck in the coming years!

Riley at CMoR

Kyle playing in the water at CMoR

Riding the dino at CMoR

Dessert on Kyles bday
John and Riley playing with baby Ben

Birthday boy!

some day Kyle is going to hate me for this...

The kids are screaming "Echo" in this video (because they are echoing!)

Soccer practice